The Psychology of the Global Jihadists

Abstract

This chapter focuses on global jihadism. Global jihadism is an ideology and a pattern of action that is in an ambivalent relationship to Islamic fundamentalism. In many cases the same attitudes are prevalent in it, notably in regard to humiliation and rejection of perverse Western values. But in regard to violence there is a large gap between the two major tendencies within the Islamic world. Fundamentalists consider a peaceful road to Islamic society one in which the political realm will be gradually Islamicized. Jihadists reject the peaceful, democracy-friendly fashion of attaining this goal and propose the recourse to jihad in the most violent manner so as to restore Islam to its former glory. Humiliation is not mastered in a way that might induce gradualism to achieve Islamic goals. On the contrary, it is put at the service of a violence that achieves worldwide focus through its hyperaggressive posturing. Total violence against globalized Western culture and domination is the major characteristic of global jihadism.